b. International Bibliography of the History of Religions (Leiden:
Brill, 1954-. An annual published in connection with Numen.

c. The best bibliography at present is the online bibliography by
the American Theologica Library Association, replacing their print
bibliographies.

3. Old one-volume standbys. These should be read:

a. Joachim Wach, The Comparative Study of Religions, ed. with an
introduction by Joseph M. Kitagawa. Lectures on the History of
Religion, sponsored by The American Council of Learned Societies,
New Series, No. 4 (NY: Columbia University Press, 1958).

c. Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, transl.
Rosemary Sheed (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1958). By one of the
major players in the game. More explanation than understanding.

d. Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, transl. John W. Harvey. A
Galaxy Book (GB 14) (NY: Oxford UP, 1958). From the German 2d ed.,
1950.

e. Those interested in the views of Dumezil: C. Scott Littleton,
The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the
Theories of Georges Dumezil, 3d ed. (Berkeley: UCalPress, 1982).

4. Vocabulary. Often, and rightly so, comparative religion is
approached through vocabulary, so that one sees books such as
Ladislaus Mittner, Wurd (Bern: Francke, 1955) and Dietrich
Ruprecht, Tristitia. Palaestra 227 (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1959), both of which are in actuality studies of
concepts.

c. An interest attempt at a historical thesaurus: Thomas Chase, The
English Religious Lexis. Texts and Studies in Religion, 37
(Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988). A contribution to the
Historical Thesaurus of English at Glasgow.

h. It is also interesting to look at the various subject indexes to
get an idea of the taxonomy of religion, the Library of Congress
Subject Headings, for example. Another interesting break-down:
Dewey decimal classification. 200 religion class: reprinted from
Edition 20 of the Dewey decimal classification: with a revised and
expanded index, and Manual notes from Edition 20, devised by Melvil
Dewey; edited by John P. Comaromi, Julianne Beall, Winton E.
Matthews, Jr., Gregory R. New, Michael B. Cantlon (Albany, NY:
Forest Press, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center,
1989).

5. Readers. Another way of getting a feel for the field is to read
through a few anthologies:

c. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 13
vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1949-50). Based on the third edition of
the Realencyklopaedie founded by J. J. Herzog. Old, but
outstanding. Do not ignore it.

d. Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. An
extension of the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge, ed. Lefferts A. Loetscher, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker,
1955). An attempt to bring the previous item up to date. Also good.

h. Histoire des religions, ed. Nenri-Charles Puech, 3 vols.
Encyclopedie de la Pleiade 29, 34, 40 (Paris: Gallimard, 1970-76).
With all the features one has come to expect of the Encyclopedie de
la Pleiade. Excellent, though a little dated.

c. John A. MacCulloch, The Religion of the Ancient Celts
(Edinburgh, 1911).

See also the later section on mythology. In the meantime, consult
the appropriate parts of: Ron Smith, Mythologies of the World: A
Guide to Sources (Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1981).

9. Internet:

a. A good book: Patrick Durusau, High Places in Cyberspace. A guide
to biblical and religious studies. classics, and archaeological
resources on the internet (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996). For
updates: http://scholar.cc.emory.edu/scripts/highplaces.html.

b. Not Just Bibles. A Guide to Christian Resources on the Internet:
http://www.iclnet.org. A great resource.

c. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edulrs. The home page for the Dept. of
Religious Studies at Pennsylvania. Think of Medtextler Bob Kraft.

d. Online bibliography in method and theory at the University of
Toronto: http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/MandT. Cf. Bruce Alton,
"Method and Theory: An On-Line Bibliography," Method and Theory in
the Study of Religion 11 (1999), 143-144. Note particularly the
break-down.

e. http://www.ucalgary.ca/~hexham. Sources for the Study of
Religion, by Irving Hexham.

h. There are many web sites and `search engines'. I will just
name
a few. Try them out:

1. Virtual Religion Index, from Rutgers:
http://religion.rutgers.edy/links/vrindex.html. A good set of
links.

2. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/durham/gresham.html is John
Gresham's site,

3. Virtual Religion Library: http://vlib.org/Religion.html.

4. http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/rel/guides.htm,

5. http://www.acusd.edu/theo/ref-gen.html.

6. http://www.academicinfo.net/religindex.html.

10. Electronic Sources (CD-ROM and academic online).

a. By far the best of the electronic sources is: American
Theological Library Association Indexes. Available from OCLC,
using their upfront engine. Available on CD-ROM from Wilson.
Replaces the old Religion Index. If you have this you need little
else. Available also from BRS, BRS/AfterDark, Dialog, Knowledge
Index (see also their break-down), and Wilsonline.

11. Journals. There are too many for me to list them with any sense
of order. Look at Ulrich's. There is also Religion Journals
and
Serials. An Analytic Guide, compiled by Eugene C. Fieg, Jr.
Annotated Bibliographies of Serials: A Subject Approach, No. 13
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988), which is, however, almost
totally anglophone. Let me mention a few:

a. History of Religions (University of Chicago, 1961-).

b. Journal of Religion (UChicago Divinity School, 1921-).

c. Numen (Leiden: Brill, 1954-). International Association of the
History of Religions.

d. Religion (London: Academic Press, 1971-).

e. Religious Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1965-).

f. Religious Studies News (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986-). At one
time graced by our own Bob Kraft's "Offline", which I miss greatly.

12. The Human Relations Area Files are available online at many
universities. They offer a description of many religions around the
globe, using the grid of the Cross-Cultural Survey as a tertium
quid (see George P. Murdock, et al., Outline of Cultural Materials,
4th ed. [New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, 1971]). Worth
consulting on any culture. See also George P. Murdock, Ethnographic
Atlas
(Pittsburgh: UPittsburgh Press, 1961).

Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, by Thomas A. Dubois (October 1999)
University of Pennsylvania Press (Submitted by Peter Kardon)